Russian military transport plane crashes in Syria, killing all 39 on board

By Sebastian Shukla and Nathan Hodge, CNN

Updated 7:35 PM ET, Tue March 6, 2018

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An Antonov An-26 Russian transport plane, like the one in this file photo, crashed Tuesday in Syria.

(CNN)Thirty-nine people, including military personnel, were killed when a Russian transport plane crashed Tuesday while trying to land at Hmeimin air base in northwest Syria, Russian state media reported.

All 33 passengers and six crew members were killed in the crash, state-run RIA-Novosti reported, citing the Defense Ministry. Earlier, it had been reported that 32 people had died.

Putin visited air base last year

The Russian government has not always been forthcoming about casualties in Syria.

Although the identity of a pilot shot down in northwest Syria last month was announced by the government, officials have been reticent to discuss the death and injury in early February of dozens of Russian military contractors in US airstrikes in Syria.

A February 3 picture shows smoke billowing from the site of a downed Russian jet in Idlib, northwest Syria.

Tuesday's crash was not the deadliest air incident related to Russia's military intervention in Syria.

In December 2016, a Tupolev Tu-154 aircraft crashed after taking off from the Adler airport near the Black Sea resort city of Sochi, killing 84 passengers and eight crew members. The plane was carrying more than 60 members of the Alexandrov Ensemble, the Russian army's official dance and choir company, on its way to Syria to give a holiday performance for troops.

Hmeimin, which is near Latakia, about 241 kilometers (150 miles) north of Damascus, is Russia's largest air base in Syria.